Folks ‘With Everything To Lose’ Testify Against Northern Pass

ByGarry Rayno, InDepthNH.org |October 18, 2017

Northern Pass Transmission project intervenors from left to right, Susan Percy of Stark, and Eric and Margaret Jones of Glencliff, testify Wednesday before the Site Evaluation Committee's adjudicative hearing on the $1.6 billion, 192-mile project from Pittsburg to Deerfield to bring Hydro-Quebec electricity to New England.

By GARRY RAYNO,InDepthNH.org

CONCORD — Intervenors affected by the Northern Pass Transmission project told state regulators on Wednesday how the new high-voltage lines would adversely impact their lives and properties.

The intervenors ranged from a couple abutting the current Deerfield transmission substation that will be expanded to connect the project to the New England grid to a couple who own large tracks of wetlands in the North Country, hoping to preserve the land for centuries to come.

Eversource, the developer of the $1.6 billion, 192-mile transmission line from Pittsburg to Deerfield, presented its case for the project with experts and supporters from April to the first week of October. Now the Counsel for the Public as well as intervenors and opponents are presenting their arguments.

“You have been listening to four months of experts and others who had something to gain from their testimony,” Attorney Arthur Cunningham, representing the Percy Lodge and Campground in Stark, told the Site Evaluation Committee. “My clients have everything to lose.”

The owners of the newly developed lodge and campground, were among those testifying in opposition to the project on Wednesday.

Eric and Margaret Jones of Glencliff own 750 acres of land in Northumberland and Stark bisected by the existing right-of-way that would hold the new transmission line.

Their land is part of a 2,300-acre area that is the largest fresh water wetlands in the state from Northumberland down to Lancaster, Eric Jones told the committee.

Wetlands cover much of the property, he said, and an important part of the watershed that drains into the Ammonoosuc River and then into the Connecticut River. About 90 percent of the right-of-way is wetlands, he added.

Jones said the proposed construction would do permanent damage to much of the wetlands and questioned some of the proposed construction methods Eversource intends to employ to construct the new transmission line.

When attorney Tom Pappas, representing Counsel for the Public, asked Jones to explain how the damage would be permanent, Eversource’s lead attorney Barry Needleman objected saying Jones was not a wetlands expert.

SEC chair Martin Honigberg allowed Pappas to have Jones establish his credentials. But when he began asking questions again about impacts to wetlands, Needleman objected again and Honigberg agreed prompting Pappas to ask if someone has to be an expert to testify and Honigberg said, “No.”

Jones also questioned why the state Department of Environmental Services approved mitigation a plan to replace destroyed wetlands that does not include constructing new wetlands in the same area instead of other locations around the state.

“Most people do not buy wetlands. We want wetlands to save for you folks and your kids,” Jones noted. “If our mission is stopped or blocked, why aren’t we compensated? Everyone is compensated but the property owner.”

He and his wife bought the property primarily to “regrow old growth,” by attaching easements that prohibit logging or development for several hundred years.

Philip and Joan Bilodeau’s home on Nottingham Road in Deerfield abuts Eversource property where a new substation will be built to connect Northern Pass to the New England power grid.

Philip Bilodeau said a small substation abutted the property when they bought it 40 years ago and has been expanded since then but will more than double in size as part of the project.

Their home has a back porch where they sit and watch wildlife, he said, while a forest and hill shield their view of the current substation.

Eversource intends to level the hill and cut much of the vegetation, he noted, and construction plans include working six days a week from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. for 18 to 24 months.

The area is rural, Bilodeau said, while construction will bring heavy equipment, trucks and more traffic, noise and probably blasting.

“We enjoy the wildlife we see now, turkeys and such,” he said. “All the construction will clearly displace any wildlife in the area and replace their habitat forever.”

Committee member Patricia Weathersby asked Bilodeau if there were any conditions the panel could place on the project to address their concerns.

“I can’t see any conditions you could impose on building a 16-acre substation that it would not impact us,” Bilodeau said.

When asked if they had considered selling their home to Northern Pass, Joan Bilodeau said they had considered it, but decided against it.

“Not at this point in our life. . . This has been our residence for 40 years. We’ve invested a lot of time and money over the years,” Bilodeau said. “If we were younger we would probably pick up and start over, but not at this point in our lives.”

Eversource had hoped to have all federal and state permits by the end of this year with construction to begin next year and the transmission line finished by the end of 2020. The Site Evaluation Committee is not expected to make a final decision on the high-voltage transition line until the end of February 2018.

If it receives all of its permits, project officials said last month that construction could begin in April.

Adjudicative hearings on the project continue Friday with the showing of a 21-minute video called “Negative Impacts of the Northern Pass Transmission Line” featuring North Country people speaking against the project. (see below)

People featured in the video are required to testify before the committee that they are indeed featured in the video done by Tim Shellmer.

As a public service, InDepthNH.org publishes the websites for Northern Pass and its opponents at the end of every story along with information about how the adjudicative process works to site new transmission projects and our previous hearing coverage. Sign up for our free Friday newsletter for Northern Pass and other news that matters in NH.

How The Process Works Before The Site Evaluation Committee

Northern Pass’ website explains the hearings process as follows:

The SEC holds adjudicative hearings to consider and weigh evidence. The applicant has the burden of proving by a preponderance of the evidence that a Certificate should be issued. Expert witnesses submit testimony under oath and are subject to cross-examination.

Persons seeking to intervene must file a petition which demonstrates that the “petitioner’s rights, duties, privileges, immunities or other substantial interest might be affected by the proceeding.”

According to Northern Pass’ website: After an extensive adjudicative proceeding, the SEC will issue a Certificate of Site and Facility “if it finds that an applicant has adequate financial, technical, and managerial capability, that a project will not interfere with the orderly development of the region, that the project will not have an unreasonable adverse effect on aesthetics, historic sites, air and water quality, the natural environment, and public health and safety, and that the project will serve the public interest.”

Eversource had hoped to have all federal and state permits by the end of the year with construction to begin next year and the transmission line finished by the end of 2020.

Members of the subcommittee that will decide Northern Pass by a majority vote are Chairman Martin Honigberg, PUC, presiding officer; Commissioner Kathryn Bailey, PUC; Dir. Craig Wright, Department of Environmental Services; Christopher Way, Department of Business and Economic Affairs; William Oldenburg, Department of Transportation; Patricia Weathersby, public member; and Rachel Dandeneau, alternate public member.

InDepthNH.org’s comprehensive coverage of the SEC hearings on Northern Pass.

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